This invention relates to soft serve frozen yogurt desserts. More particularly, this invention relates to flavored yogurt dessert mix powders for preparing soft frozen non-fat yogurt desserts having small crystal size, smooth consistency and uniformity of texture.
Soft frozen desserts ranging from dairy products such as ice milk, custard, ice cream and yogurt to non-dairy water ice items such as slushes, shave ices and Sno-Kones# are becoming more readily available through fast food and convenience outlets. Dairy frozen desserts are of more limited availability due to the fact that dairy containing products are more strictly regulated than their non-dairy counterparts. Moreover, many soft frozen dairy desserts such as yogurt have not attained the same popularity as other frozen dairy desserts due to the fact that they must be prepared and shipped as liquids in non-frozen form.
Non-fat frozen yogurt is defined as a frozen dairy product made from milk, with or without added milk solids, flavoring, or seasoning, which has been pasteurized and afterwards fermented by one or more strains of Lactobacillus bulgaricus, including yogurt strain, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus acidophilus. The product may or may not be pasteurized following fermentation depending upon state regulations. Fruits and flavorings may be added before or after the mix is fermented and cultured. The product may contain harmless edible stabilizers or emulsifiers in stated amounts. Standards of titratable acidity, expressed as lactic acid, are set depending upon the flavoring and/or fruit content. The freezing and air incorporation of the frozen yogurt is set at not more than a stated percent by volume of the product, e.g. 60 percent.
There are no dry mix standards for the preparation of frozen yogurts. Therefore, the standards for mixes which are stated are for liquids. A typical standard (California Food and Agricultural Code Section 36994) pertains to frozen yogurt and lowfat frozen yogurt mixes only and contains no mention at all of mixes for non-fat frozen yogurt. That section states that frozen yogurt mix and lowfat yogurt mix are unfrozen products which are used in the manufacture of frozen yogurt and lowfat frozen yogurt. They are required to comply with all the requirements for frozen yogurt and lowfat frozen yogurt respectively.
Because of the current emphasis on limiting fat intake, there is considerable interest in non-fat desserts of all varieties. In the case of yogurt, it would be advantageous to have a non-fat dry yogurt mix from which a soft frozen product could be prepared by dissolving the mix in water and freezing.